Canal Boat Ride Through the Beautiful City of Gent.
It is Friday and we are in Belgium. The Eurodam was late getting
into port because our departure from Cherbourg France, was delayed because of
gale force winds. It was quite an adventure to stand on our balcony veranda and
watch the tug and the ship battle the strong winds and eventually let go its
moorings and head out to the open sea. Apparently the main risk was trying to
manoeuvre such a large vessel through such a small opening in the massive
breakwater around Cherbourg harbour when such strong winds were blowing. We eventually left the port about 5 hours
later than planned. The Captain then went flat out during the night (22 knots)
so we could get to Zeebruges so the passengers could go on their booked tours.
Our tour today is to the medieval city of Gent (Ghent). We start with an hour bus trip through the Flemish countryside - which is extremely flat, lush and green. There are many small farms dotting the countryside. There are lots of extremely fat and healthy looking cows and there are fields of newly sprouting corn. Our tour guide tells us that there are thousands of small pig farms in the area and even though you cannot see the pigs you can smell them. The countryside is crossed by large water canals, which have been used over the centuries to transport goods by large barges to the inland cities of Europe from the coast. The canals stand out because they have very tall trees growing close together on either side of the water canal all the way through the country. The towns we pass through are very neat and tidy and the Flemish houses have a certain charm about them.
When we arrive in Gent, we all squash on to a fairly small
open top canal boat for our cruise to the old part of city. On the way we see
many barges and pass under many low bridges, we pass old houses, grand
buildings and old guild halls. We also see 13th century monasteries,
cathedrals. and the fabulous Castle of the Counts. The Her Gravensteen or
Castle of Counts has massive thick stone walls and an imposing gatehouse. Parts
of the Castle date back to the 11th century. Gent was a world famous
producer of cloth material during the 19th century and even this
castle was used as a mill during this time.
The main area of the city is just beautiful. It is busy with
many little canal boats, like ours giving tourists rides and there are lots of
young people sitting in the area enjoying themselves. Gent is known as a
university town and has 65000 students living there.
One of Gent’s most picturesque streets, the Grassley
overlooks the River Leia on the site of the city’s medieval harbour. It is
lined with perfectly preserved guild houses, some of which date back to the
12century. This is now the centre of the tourist area.
The Korenmarkt Square.
We have 50 minutes to ourselves to have a quick look around
the old city. The buildings in this area are just charming and there are some
beautiful shops selling beautiful Belgium lace and world renowned Belgium
chocolates, and to add to the charm of the place there is a strong fragrance of
lavender in the air. Even though are stay is short, we thoroughly enjoy our
time in Gent. It is a gorgeous city and its medieval architecture is fantastic.
I am sure that there is a lot more to be seen in Gent and I hope that one day
we might return.
THE BEAUTIFUL LACE SHOP.
We then re-board the canal boat for the 30minute ride back
to the coach and complete the transfer back to our ship.
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